Cognosphere, the publisher of "Phantom of the Opera," appears to be pursuing one of the game's biggest leakers: as reported by TorrentFreak (opens in new tab), lawyers representing Cognosphere have filed a DMCA subpoena with Discord as Ubatcha as Ubatcha, to Discord, requesting that they provide the true identity of the person known online as Ubatcha.

Ubatcha is one of Genshin Impact's most well-known leakers, with over 465,000 followers on Twitter (open in new tab). They are also a trusted presence on the Genshin Impact Leaks subreddit (opens in new tab) and manage the Discord server for Wangsheng Funeral Parlor (opens in new tab), which has over 272,000 members.

According to the initial submission (opens in new tab), infringing content was posted there, and as a result, Cognosphere's attorneys ordered Discord to "disclose the name, address, telephone number, and email address of user Ubatcha#2719, who is responsible for posting infringing content, including . including the name, address, telephone number, and email address of the user responsible for posting the infringing content."

The second application (opens in new tab) also states that "the information obtained will be used solely for the purpose of protecting the rights granted to the Cognosphere under the Copyright Act." This covers a number of areas, including legal actions that the Cognosphere as MiHoYo has not been shy about taking in the past.

For example, in September 2021, MiHoYo filed a lawsuit (opens in new tab) against Chinese video-sharing platform (and Twitch equivalent) Bilibili in an effort to identify 11 different leakers. miHoYo also filed a lawsuit in September 2021 forced the removal of Genshin Impact's popular wiki "Honey Hunter" (opens in new tab).

This latest legal action comes less than two months after a massive leak of Genshin Impact revealed that up to nine months of updates were planned; as GamesRadar (open in new tab) noted, the leak was so massive and widespread, many prominent leakers, including Ubatcha, denied it. But it didn't seem to do him much good: given the timing and his past history with the leaker, it seems highly unlikely that Cognosphere is chasing Ubatcha's identity to send him a Christmas card.

Discord would almost certainly comply with this request if it received it. Such lawsuits are usually a formality to ensure that all parties involved are fulfilling their legal and contractual obligations. At a minimum, it would likely stop the Ubacha leak, but a broader chilling effect on the Genshin Impact leak is also a possible outcome. We have asked the cognoscenti for comment on this issue and will update if we receive a response.